In today's world, when work and home life seem to intertwine and
many of us are tethered to technology that keeps us constantly
available, time is our most precious commodity. In
Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has theTime, Brigid Schulte takes a look at the U.S.'s perpetual time
crunch and what makes us all in such a hurry. Schulte offers
extensive research regarding time, work, and play in the U.S. and
the results are fascinating: it turns out time is gendered in our
society. Schulte argues that the myth of the "ideal worker"
(an employee who puts in hours upon hours of face time in at work
and will drop everything at a moment's notice for their employer)
is detrimental to the health and happiness of individuals and does
nothing at all to support families. Women, particularly
mothers, assumed to be the care givers in families, are the ones
who suffer the most; they make less money, are less likely to rise
to management levels within companies, and feel relentless pressure
to be the perfect parent. Schulte offers lots of data to back
up her argument, and she suggests changes (including paid
maternity/paternity leave, paid vacation, flexible work hours,
more egalitarian household duties, etc.) that she thinks would
offer better support to families and in turn generate happy,
healthy, and productive workers.

I found this book extremely interesting to read despite a topic
that, handled differently, could have easily been boring; it made
me look at structures in our society that are taken for granted and
realize that, yes, we can have more time, better gender equality,
and still be a productive society. I do wish more attention
was paid to how low income families and people of color are
impacted by "the overwhelm" as the author describes it-although
Schulte occasionally addresses both income and race, there's plenty
more that could have been discussed along those lines.
Despite that flaw, I came away from this book with the feeling that
the topic of time--both work and leisure--is incredibly important to
discuss and that a cultural shift in how we think about time could
have a huge, positive impact on our society.

Book

Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time

In today's world, when work and home life seem to intertwine and
many of us are tethered to technology that keeps us constantly
available, time is our most precious commodity. In
Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has theTime, Brigid Schulte takes a look at the U.S.'s perpetual time
crunch and what makes us all in such a hurry. Schulte offers
extensive research regarding time, work, and play in the U.S. and
the results are fascinating: it turns out time is gendered in our
society. Schulte argues that the myth of the "ideal worker"
(an employee who puts in hours upon hours of face time in at work
and will drop everything at a moment's notice for their employer)
is detrimental to the health and happiness of individuals and does
nothing at all to support families. Women, particularly
mothers, assumed to be the care givers in families, are the ones
who suffer the most; they make less money, are less likely to rise
to management levels within companies, and feel relentless pressure
to be the perfect parent. Schulte offers lots of data to back
up her argument, and she suggests changes (including paid
maternity/paternity leave, paid vacation, flexible work hours,
more egalitarian household duties, etc.) that she thinks would
offer better support to families and in turn generate happy,
healthy, and productive workers.

I found this book extremely interesting to read despite a topic
that, handled differently, could have easily been boring; it made
me look at structures in our society that are taken for granted and
realize that, yes, we can have more time, better gender equality,
and still be a productive society. I do wish more attention
was paid to how low income families and people of color are
impacted by "the overwhelm" as the author describes it-although
Schulte occasionally addresses both income and race, there's plenty
more that could have been discussed along those lines.
Despite that flaw, I came away from this book with the feeling that
the topic of time--both work and leisure--is incredibly important to
discuss and that a cultural shift in how we think about time could
have a huge, positive impact on our society.